Do pennies serve a purpose?

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Handicapper
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Why do we have pennies?
Without looking it up, I am certain that it cost more then 1cent to make a penny.
If im at the store and something cost 1.98 I will just hand the cashier $2 bucks and walk away.

What really pisses me off though is when something cost 2.01 and I hand the cashier $2 and they look at me funny like where is my 1 cent? Then I have to reach into the penny bucket in front of the register if they have one, or even worse break another bill only to be rewarded with 99cents in change.

Come on now. You dont remember the last 5 times I let you slide on the extra few cents change?

Where is the give and take?


Or when something cost 3.01 and I hand them a 5 instead of giving me $2 back they give me $1.99.

Pennies are so annoying.

Why cant we get rid of them?

I bet you it cost at least 3 cents to make one cent.
Talk about deficit spending.

It serves no purpose.
 

SHANKAPOTOMUS !!!!
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It is so the retailers can charge $1.99 so it doesn't look like $2.00
 

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I had this same discussion at a bar last week with some friends. If the total is like 2.02$ or something like that, I always ask the cashier is they will give me back .98$.....if they say yes, I use my debit card and run it as credit so they have to pay the fee. I know it is a dick move, but come on, who wants a dollar worth of change in their pocket......BTW, I never leave for work without at least .50$ in my pocket....pet peeve.
 

EV Whore
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I had this same discussion at a bar last week with some friends. If the total is like 2.02$ or something like that, I always ask the cashier is they will give me back .98$.....if they say yes, I use my debit card and run it as credit so they have to pay the fee. I know it is a dick move, but come on, who wants a dollar worth of change in their pocket......BTW, I never leave for work without at least .50$ in my pocket....pet peeve.

Haha, I like your style. Totally stealing this move.
 

Rx. Senior
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I have to expect the only brief moment of entertainment a minimum wage cashier ever sees comes from when they are able to give back a handful of coins to someone

Just carry a debit card or credit card and it doesn't matter

Penny jar is up to 80-pounds, that's like $7 per year I've managed to collect
 

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Retailers would otherwise round up - bastards ..

I like restaurants that charge even amounts 1 dollar, 2 dollars etc. With tax embedded.


Make it a 94 cent store and charge a buck for everything already... Likewise charge 9.32 for a pizza -- hence 10 bucks etc.
 
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I fucking hate pennies. I usually pay for everything with my card. However, when I do pay in cash and get pennies back I throw them on the ground.
 

Rx God
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I fucking hate pennies. I usually pay for everything with my card. However, when I do pay in cash and get pennies back I throw them on the ground.

That's why the have to produce 5+ Billion annually

Maybe some Canadians here can report how it's working there ?

Canada Eliminates Penny Costing Penny-and-a-Half to Make


By Jacqueline Thorpe - Mar 29, 2012 1:57 PM PT



Canada will withdraw the penny from circulation this year, saving taxpayers about C$11 million ($11 million) annually and forcing retailers to round prices to the nearest nickel, the government announced in its budget today.
The Royal Canadian Mint, which has produced 35 billion pennies since it began production in 1908, will cease distribution this fall due to the coin’s low purchasing power. Production and handling cost for the one-cent coin are a C$150- million drag on the economy, according to a 2006 study by Desjardins, a Levis, Quebec-based financial institution.
Enlarge image
Canadian coins in Toronto. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg


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“Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home,” Finance MinisterJim Flaherty said in the text of his budget speech in Ottawa. “They take up far too much time for small businesses trying to grow and create jobs.”
Business groups welcomed the move, which follows other countries such as Australia, Brazil and Sweden, and economists said it would have little impact on inflation.
“If there’s a rounding up, you’d see a rounding down somewhere else,” said Craig Wright, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
The savings to financial institutions alone may be about C$20-million a year, as banks reduce transportation, storage and handling costs, the study estimated.
It costs the government 1.6 cents to produce one penny, which has been made of copper-plated zinc and copper-plated steel since 1997.
Stuck Down the Sofa

“It’s a cost to the government that can be easily saved, given that most pennies get stuck down the back of the sofa or under the streetcar,” said David Tulk, chief Canada macroeconomic strategist at TD Securities Inc., a unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank. (TD)
The penny, with two maple leafs on one side and Queen Elizabeth II on the other, can continue to be used in payments. As they are gradually withdrawn from circulation, price rounding on cash transactions will be required, the government said.
The calculation of the federal goods and services tax and provincial sales taxes will continue to be calculated to the penny and added to the price, with rounding only taking place on the total payment.
Non-cash payments on checks and credit cards will continue to be rounded to the nearest cent.
“If businesses round cash transactions to the nearest five-cent increment, any gains or losses relating to cash transactions (a maximum of two cents per transaction) will balance out over time,” the government said in its budget documents.
Increase Efficiency

Retailers and other businesses can continue to price goods and services in one-cent increments and there will be no need to reprogram cash registers, according to the government.
Catherine Swift, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the move will increase efficiency.
“It has been a long time coming,” she said. “It’s been a real pain more than anything else. We’ve actually polled our members on this and they’re supportive.”
The mint used 1.5 million kilograms of steel, 70,000 kilograms of copper and 23,000 kilograms of nickel last year to make pennies at its facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It put 1.3 billion coins in circulation in 2011, half of which were freshly minted and half made from recycled materials.
 

New member
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pennies are a waste of space... no coins should even exist its just annoying have to dig through change lol
 

Rx God
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so what would you use for change since cash will be around at least for another decade ?

round to the dollar ?
 

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Good for strip joints in Utah.
Penny in Utah = Dollar elsewhere
(for the value of the entertainment provided)
If you've been to one, you know what I mean....
)^&&
 

Rx Senior
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without pennies, how will we pay tax on something that costs a dollar?
 

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I throw em in the cup or on the ground.
 

Rx Dragon Puller
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I'll be glad when we don't have em around anymore , useless
 

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